Microsoft launched a software program designed to help police worldwide hunt down child porn traffickers by enabling authorities for the first time to link information such as credit card purchases, internet chat room messages and arrest records. The Child Exploitation Tracking System is the first software designed specifically to capture pornographers who prey on children over the internet.

It will allow police departments worldwide to share and track previously unlinked information on investigations and suspects. The open source program was developed by Microsoft Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Toronto police, with the help of the Department of Homeland Security, Scotland Yard and Interpol. The FBI has seen a 2,000 percent increase in the number of child pornography images on the internet since 1996 and Canadian police estimate that more than 100,000 websites contain images of child sexual abuse.